Understanding and assessing preservice teachers’ reflective thinking

This study reviews the criteria for assessing reflective thinking, and investigates how the process of reflective thinking develops in preservice teachers. Reflections of preservice teachers are assessed from two perspectives: content and depth. The findings include variations in the content, and that the pace at which reflective thinking deepens depends on personal background, field experience contexts, and the mode of communication. The study includes insights into how to measure the quality of reflective thinking and how to enhance reflective thinking and cultivate reflective practitioners, including the kinds of experiences that could be incorporated in a teacher education program.     

Preparing beginning teachers for inclusion: designing and assessing supplementary fieldwork experiences

Inclusive education requires restructuring educational provision so that mainstream schools are able to provide for the needs of all students in their communities. To help realise this goal, initial teacher education programmes need to better prepare new graduates for teaching students with complex special education needs, including students with intellectual disability. Concerns about the capacity of current school-based placements to prepare new teachers for inclusive classrooms have led some teacher education institutions to develop supplementary fieldwork experiences. The current study involved an investigation into such an experience and looked at the benefits to pre-service teachers (PSTs) of tutoring a young adult with intellectual disability. The findings indicate that PSTs learned effective strategies for differentiating a programme of work and, in their first year of study, were developing a teacher identity. The importance of aligning experiences with coursework units is highlighted and the need for valid assessments of how well initial teacher education programmes are preparing beginning teachers for inclusion, and what these assessments may look like, is discussed.     

An approach to assisting teachers in building physical and network hybrid community-based learning environments: the Taiwanese experience

Information technology (IT) is becoming increasingly important in K-12 (from kindergarten to senior high school) education. Teachers face growing pressure to interact with their students via networks. However, most teachers require IT assistance to establish a network learning environment. In this study, an approach named “Educational Applications Providers Platform” (EAPP), which clearly separates system developers and users, is designed to help teachers easily apply IT to build network learning communities based on existing physical learning communities, and designed to increase interaction frequency and quality both during and after class. Additionally, EAPP assists teachers in integrating physical and network learning communities to proceed with community-based learning. A system named “EduTowns” is implemented to realize the EAPP concept. The analytical results demonstrate that the EduTowns system is effective in Taiwanese schools, regardless of whether they are in urban or rural areas. Moreover, the survey results demonstrate that the EAPP is helpful to many teachers. Even teachers with low IT abilities can use the EduTowns system to build and organize hybrid physical and network community-based learning environments. The survey also indicates that teachers use the EduTowns system both at school and at home.     

论中学思想政治课教师的政治素质

政治素质是思想政治课教师应当具备的最基本素质.中学思想政治课教学的本质和内容和新时期政治课教师的特殊地位决定了政治课教师必须有优良的政治素质.正确的政治方向、政治观点,坚定的政治信念、政治立场在思想政治课教师的教学过程中起着定向作用.政治鉴别力和政治敏锐性,是思想政治课能否取得长远效果的根本所在.     

Decision-making and control: perceived autonomy of teachers in Germany and Sweden

Teacher autonomy has become an increasingly popular research topic over the past decade, reflecting wider national and global education trends. In this light, this article investigates and compares the perceptions of German and Swedish teachers concerning their professional autonomy. We analyse teachers’ perceptions using a grid, and view teacher autonomy as a multidimensional phenomenon taking place in different domains (educational, social, developmental and administrative) and at different levels (classroom, school, profession). The findings show that the teachers interviewed in Germany and Sweden value autonomy in various domains and dimensions differently, even if there also are many similarities. In instruction, that is, the educational autonomy domain, they perceive themselves to be very autonomous, in particular in relation to choices of content and method. Autonomous work in the classroom arena is also seen as the very core of the teaching profession. Overall, German teachers perceive themselves to be significantly involved in more areas of their work, and they refer much more to decisions which are to be made, whereas their Swedish colleagues are more concerned about control. Finally, we discuss the findings in relation to different nation-specific forms of extended or restricted autonomy teacher autonomy.     

教师自控能力对其课堂管理行为的影响

我国中小课堂管理模式,在很大程度上仍是一种传统的专制模式。这种课堂管理模式与当前倡导的民主式管理方式相悖,并带来了许多负面效应。为了转变中小学教师的课堂管理行为,提高课堂管理的有效性,运用实证研究的方法从内部因素——教师的自我调控入手,分析教师的自我调控能力对其课堂管理行为的影响。研究结果证实,教师自控能力对其课堂管理行为具有直接的影响作用。     

Degrees held by the presidents of state teachers colleges

Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice. By Hilda Taba. (New York: Harcourt, Brace &; World, Inc., 1962. Pp. 529. $6.95.)

The Education of the Secondary School Teacher. Edited by Ernest Stabler. (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1962. Pp. 239. $5.00.)

Psychology in the Making: Histories of Selected Research Problems. Edited by Leo Postman. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962. Pp. 785. $9.00.)

Supervision: A Synthesis of Thought and Action. By William H. Lucio and John E. McNeil. (New York: McGraw‐Hill, 1962. Pp. 282. $6.50.)

Soviet Education: Anton Makarenko and the Years of Experiment. By James Bowen. (Madison, Wis.: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1962. Pp. 232. $5.00.)

Teacher Education: A Reappraisal. Edited by Elmer R. Smith. (New York: Harper and Row, 1962. Pp. 213. $4.00.)     

教师驾御课堂能力谈

课堂教学是实施素质教育的主渠道，教师驾御课堂的能力至关重要。 一、教师驾御课堂的能力应体现时代性和科学性 　　1.要具有将书本知识转化为学生能力的能力教师驾御课堂的能力，首先要体现在能够把有关的理论知识转化为学生的能力上。涉及的具体问题是：①学生的思维有没有得到进一步的发散；②解决某个难点或重点的契机有没有把握；③由理论向实践过渡中操作情况怎样；④有没有拘泥于现成的东西，是否有所发现和创造；⑤教师有没有以自己积极向上的热情去感染所有的学生；⑥能不能从今天所学到的有关知识中看到与明天的差距和不足，等…     

Selecting teachers and prospective teachers: A meta-analysis

The purpose of this review article was to examine the methods used for the selection of teachers for employment and prospective teachers entering initial teacher education (ITE) programs, and to assess the predictive validity of these methods. We reviewed 32 studies reporting selection methods administered in high-stakes conditions and that included an external (not self-reported) teacher effectiveness outcome measure. The overall effect size was small but significant (r = 0.12, p < .001). Moderator analyses showed that academic and non-academic predictors were both significantly associated with teacher effectiveness measures and that effect sizes were small (but significant) for selection into employment and ITE. We conclude the review by proposing a research agenda that has the potential to enhance educational outcomes by improving the selection of prospective teachers.     

The professional role and identity of teachers in the private and state education sectors

Abstract

This paper compares the professional role and identity of teachers in private and state schools. It brings together theory within the sociology of the professions and approaches influenced by Basil Bernstein. It utilises his work on recontextualisation to identify the nature of teachers’ professional role; and Beck and Young’s (2010) Bernstein-influenced analytical framework to understand changes in these teachers’ professional identity. Drawing on focussed qualitative research the study shows how, within private schools, when cloistered from the Official Recontextualising Field (ORF) an idealized account of teachers’ professional work flourishes. This idealized understanding of occupational professionalism is contingent on the ‘othering’ of the state sector: to do this private-school teachers adopt a deprofessionalization discourse which represents the state teacher as a passive receiver of the ORF. In contrast, state teachers foreground their agency to negotiate competing professional logics which they express through hybrid approaches to professional practice.